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Wednesday, 3 April 2013

Society for Conservation Biology urges EU members to save the Common Agricultural Policy

Recent
decisions by the European Parliament reject a radical reform of the environmental
aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). These decisions include
reducing the sets-aside area devoted to nature protection (“Ecological Focus
Area”) to 3% instead of the originally-proposed 7%, and a watering-down of the
crop diversificationrequirements, thus encouraging continued intensification and expansion of large-scale
mono-cropping (such as maize) across Europe.

In
a letter to Parliament Members and Commissioners, SCB-ES expressed its deep concerns
about these decisions and warns that it contradicts the principles and
strategies of the EU 2020 Biodiversity Action Plan, as well as international
agreements signed by the EU. SCB-ES states that “…the rejection of more profound CAP reforms amounts to a significant
retreat from the international targets on sustainable development, environmental
protection and biodiversity conservation”.

“The
Parliament’s decision is disappointing not only because it counteracts the efforts
to halt biodiversity loss, but also because it ignores scientific evidence and tools
for reconciling economic and environmental needs.”, says Dr. Guy Pe’er from the Helmholtz Centre for
Environmental Research – UFZ and chair of the Communication Committee of SCB-ES.

The
EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2020 states that “biodiversity safeguards
contained in existing EU law must not be weakened, and new strategies must not
fail” and that “CAP is a crucial tool for biodiversity conservation,
mitigation of climate change, and ecosystem services.” SCB-ES is convinced that
the current decision by MEPs on the CAP reform stands in stark contrast to
these statements, and will lead to a failure in achieving a favourable
conservation status of 40% of all habitats and species in Europe by 2020.

“We should not forget that
there are areas of Europe, especially in the newly joined member states, that
are both biologically and culturally diverse”, says Andras Baldi, President of SCB-ES. “These are being degraded at an
exceptional rate, and the main culprit is agricultural intensification”.

Towards the upcoming meeting of the “trilogue” between
DG Agriculture and Rural Development, the Council of Agriculture Ministers and representatives
of the EU Parliament, SCB-ES urges the EU to take a last chance in correcting
these anomalies of the CAP reform. They specifically called to maintain
sufficient spending on the environment, set back the Ecological
Focus Areas at 7% or higher (in fact, scientific evidence suggests that 10 %
should be a more realistic figure), reinstate the protection of carbon- and
biodiversity rich grasslands, and perform a careful inspection of eligibility
criteria to ensure that funding is spent wisely. SCB-ES further calls to
acknowledge the biological (and cultural) diversity of European landscapes and
accordingly ensure crop diversification, especially in environmentally sensitive
areas, in order to halt the rapid intensification of agricultural areas across
Europe.

“Estimates suggest that 30-40% of the yearly food
production in developed countries is wasted, and at the same time, farmers in
Europe produce more biofuel and less food”, says Prof. Pierre Ibisch, Chair
of the Policy Committee of SCB-ES. “This means that greater flexibility for the
farming industry to maximise productivity, and less control on impacts, will
not safeguard against food shortages but instead will hamper ecosystems
services, and, in the longer term, productivity.”

b) a white stork in a meadow in Poland; agricultural
intensification is one of the main threats on a species of high cultural
importance (picture Adam Wajrak)

c) Common hamster: an Annex IV species that reached very
low population size in Western Europe, and is rapidly declining in Central and
Eastern Europe mainly due to agricultural intensification (picture: Adam Wajrak).

For further information:

The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) is an international
organization of scientists and conservation professionals with thousands of members from more than 60 countries.
Members include academics with expertise across the natural and social
sciences, field biologists, educators, resource managers, administrators,
economists, lawyers, and many others. SCB is dedicated to advancing the science and practice of
conserving the Earth's biological diversity. The European Section (SCB-ES) represents conservation professionals
from all the 27 EU member states.